The Victoria International Casino

Ramados and Volcere in picture doctored by Ahmane to remove his presence.

Last week the Seychelles Independent published on its front page a photograph featuring Ralph Volcere, the Editor of this newspaper, with Dr. Ramadoss. This picture was taken on the night of the official opening of the Victoria International Casino, on Thursday, 14th June 2007. On its back page the Independent published another four photographs showing the impressionable Volcere in conversation with different distinguished personalities at the same gathering at the Pirates Arms building where the Casino is housed. These pictures were taken by Conrad Berlouis on the orders of Percy Ah-Mane, the Editor of the Seychelles Independent. Ah-Mane was also in that picture, but, for reasons best known to him, he has decided to remove himself from the photograph published in his own newspaper.

Since Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly was invited to the opening of the Casino, Volcere went along to represent the newspaper and to cover the event. Dr. Ramadoss welcomed Volcere with a smile as broad as Percy’s appetite for distortion. This Casino is the latest addition in Dr. Ramadoss business empire. Ramadoss is now considered by far the most powerful business personality in the country. This situation has come about through a complex web woven by the SPPF to control businesses, the private sector and in providing long term financial muscle to the party, in their craving to hold on to power indefinitely.

Percy Ah-Mane got upset with Volcere, when the latter commented in a conversation with Dr. Ramadoss that he (Volcere) hope the Victoria International Casino will be paying taxes as is expected from the proceeds of this particular venture like other profit making businesses. Dr. Ramadoss summoned an employee who was standing nearby holding a file under his arm to bring the file over. Dr. Ramadoss opened the file pulling out a document from the Seychelles Licensing Authority which showed that the license fee has been set at one million rupees for the Victoria International Casino. The Amusement Centre is famously known to have been exempted from paying business tax losing the treasury millions in revenue…..

We also observed that the Victoria International Casino is staffed mostly by expatriates even to perform the most menial of tasks. This situation is common practice all over the country today especially in the tourism industry. It is alleged that even the Head of State has in his employment nannies from the Philippines to perform domestic chores. If this is indeed true, it begs the question – what is wrong in employing Seychellois workers? This country is full of unemployed and underemployed’s but not unemployable, people looking for work. Are the Seychellois workers not good enough to work for the rich and powerful? These are the questions that the Editor of the so-called ‘Seychelles Independent’ should be putting to his masters, instead of distorting a situation to make it look anything but what it really was………